The Mountains Wore Down to the Valleys to bring a unique sensory experience to the National Hispanic Cultural Center beginning November 4

September 26th, 2022

Albuquerque, NM- The National Hispanic Cultural Center (NHCC) is thrilled to welcome a unique, evolving art exhibition, The Mountains Wore Down to the Valleys, to the NHCC Art Museum Community Gallery on Nov. 4.  

"The National Hispanic Cultural Center is proud to showcase a unique exhibition featuring New Mexican artists,” said NHCC Executive Director Dr. Margie Huerta. “As an installation that evolves over time, The Mountains Wore Down to the Valleys truly has to be seen and heard multiple times to be believed!” 

The Mountains Wore Down to the Valleys is a collaborative sound and visual installation by New Mexican artists Adri De La Cruz (they/them) and Marisa Demarco (she/her) that transforms after three days. For the first 72 hours of the exhibition’s lifespan, The Mountains Wore Down to the Valleys will be experienced primarily as a sound installation, as 20 record players set up around the gallery space play unique musical compositions and recordings on vinyl records that erode over time.  

As these records erode, the compositions change alongside the exhibition itself. Once the music has worn away, etched portraits of the interviewees will be presented on the reverse side of each record on visual display. Stories of strength over time emanate from another record that plays multigenerational interviews with De La Cruz’s family members. This record, a document of lineage, will endure. 

NHCC Visual Arts Program Manager Jadira Gurulé describes the exhibition as an exploration of love, family, community, and the perseverance of generations. Each element embodies an experience: the grooves on a record much like mountains and valleys, the materials strong and enduring, yet fragile and malleable. 

The NHCC will hold an opening reception to celebrate the artists on Friday, Nov. 4 from 5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. Visit the gallery between Friday, Nov. 4 and Sunday, Nov. 6 from 10:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m. for the sonic experience. The visual component will be on view from Nov. 8 through April 23, 2023. 

The artists behind the project bring a unique and diverse set of backgrounds to the exhibition. Demarco is an artist and composer based in Albuquerque. Some of her compositions include a score she co-composed for six singers based on river flow data, and an eight-hour score that parallels the adult sleep cycle. Compositions by Demarco have been featured in the UNM Art Museum, SITE Santa Fe, the Species in Peril Along The Rio Grande exhibition by 516 Arts, the John Donald Robb Composers Symposium and commissioned for The Chuppers Electric Ensemble, and her work has appeared as interventions in the Society of Ethnomusicology Symposium and the Best of Burque showcase. 

Adri De La Cruz is a multi-disciplinary artist. They work in taxidermy, scrimshaw, sculpture, painting and mixed media. Much of De La Cruz’s work is based around their multifaceted identity as a queer, non-binary person of color in the current political climate, as well as their family’s place in United States society in the past, present and future. Their works are intended to hold space for these heavy emotional themes that are viewed as private, uncomfortable, or invoking a sense of isolation.  

This work is funded, in part, by a grant from New Music USA. For more information about the exhibition, visit https://www.nhccnm.org/exhibitions.